Major Bert Bank enlisted in the AAC on 27 January 1941, after graduating from University of Alabama with an LL.D. in 1940 and working for the Tuscaloosa News. He received his commission upon graduation as part of the U of A ROTC program.

He served with the 27th Bombardment Group (L) that was transferred to the Philippines in November 1941. The unit was supposed to be armed with the A-24 Dauntless dive bomber aircraft which never arrived. When Luzon was attacked by Japanese forces, the 27th became an infantry unit, fighting the Japanese for 99 days, until they were forced to surrender on 9 April 1942. He became a POW and was on the forced "Bataan Death March". He was held at Camp O' Donnell and Cabanatuan, and Mindanao until 30 January 1945 when he and other POWs were liberated by 6th Army Ranger Battalion at Cababatuan. He remained in Valley Forge General Hospital for much of his remaining career due to the malnutrition he suferred under the Japanese.

Bank served as a member of both the Alabama House of Representatives and Alabama Senate. He served two terms in the State House, first being elected in 1966, and one term as a State Senator, being elected in 1974. He forgo a second term in the State Senate to unsuccessfully run for Lieutenant Governor in 1978.